What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers
In the wake of her mother's death, Jessica Pearce Rotondi uncovers boxes of letters, declassified CIA reports, and newspaper clippings that bring to light a family ghost: her uncle Jack, who disappeared during the CIA-led "Secret War" in Laos in 1972. The letters lead her across Southeast Asia in search of the truth that has eluded her family for decades.



On the night of March 29, 1972, Jack's plane vanishes over the mountains bordering Vietnam. The crash eerily echoes the one Jack's father, Ed Pearce, survived over Germany in World War II, when Ed parachuted out of a burning plane before being captured and sent to Stalag 17 prison camp.



Years later, Ed will become convinced that his son is still alive and that the US government he fought for is lying to him. What We Inherit is Rotondi's story of her own hunt for answers as she retraces her grandfather's journey to Laos in search of his son.



An excavation of intergenerational trauma on a personal and national scale, What We Inherit reveals the power of a father's refusal to be silenced and a daughter's quest to rediscover her voice in the wake of loss.
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What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers
In the wake of her mother's death, Jessica Pearce Rotondi uncovers boxes of letters, declassified CIA reports, and newspaper clippings that bring to light a family ghost: her uncle Jack, who disappeared during the CIA-led "Secret War" in Laos in 1972. The letters lead her across Southeast Asia in search of the truth that has eluded her family for decades.



On the night of March 29, 1972, Jack's plane vanishes over the mountains bordering Vietnam. The crash eerily echoes the one Jack's father, Ed Pearce, survived over Germany in World War II, when Ed parachuted out of a burning plane before being captured and sent to Stalag 17 prison camp.



Years later, Ed will become convinced that his son is still alive and that the US government he fought for is lying to him. What We Inherit is Rotondi's story of her own hunt for answers as she retraces her grandfather's journey to Laos in search of his son.



An excavation of intergenerational trauma on a personal and national scale, What We Inherit reveals the power of a father's refusal to be silenced and a daughter's quest to rediscover her voice in the wake of loss.
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What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers

What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers

by Jessica Pearce Rotondi

Narrated by Jessica Pearce Rotondi

Unabridged — 6 hours, 50 minutes

What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers

What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers

by Jessica Pearce Rotondi

Narrated by Jessica Pearce Rotondi

Unabridged — 6 hours, 50 minutes

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Overview

In the wake of her mother's death, Jessica Pearce Rotondi uncovers boxes of letters, declassified CIA reports, and newspaper clippings that bring to light a family ghost: her uncle Jack, who disappeared during the CIA-led "Secret War" in Laos in 1972. The letters lead her across Southeast Asia in search of the truth that has eluded her family for decades.



On the night of March 29, 1972, Jack's plane vanishes over the mountains bordering Vietnam. The crash eerily echoes the one Jack's father, Ed Pearce, survived over Germany in World War II, when Ed parachuted out of a burning plane before being captured and sent to Stalag 17 prison camp.



Years later, Ed will become convinced that his son is still alive and that the US government he fought for is lying to him. What We Inherit is Rotondi's story of her own hunt for answers as she retraces her grandfather's journey to Laos in search of his son.



An excavation of intergenerational trauma on a personal and national scale, What We Inherit reveals the power of a father's refusal to be silenced and a daughter's quest to rediscover her voice in the wake of loss.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"The narrative is moving and dramatic as the author shares the alternately heartbreaking and triumphant moments of this intergenerational search for the truth... Rotondi also shares details about the CIA’s 'Secret War' in Laos, where, 'between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped two million tons of cluster bombs…a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years.' An inspiring and revealing story of one family’s pursuit of the truth about their son." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"In her powerful, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching first book, Rotondi explains how in 2009, after her mother's death, she found boxes of files, newspaper clippings, and declassified CIA reports regarding her Uncle Jack and the family's search for him." —Booklist

"It’s both a stirring portrait of a family desperate for closure and a gripping account of the human toll of the U.S.’s military adventures." —Fast Company

"A fascinating memoir about a woman's search for answers about a secret that has haunted her family for decades. After Jessica's uncle went missing in Laos in the ‘70s, the US government told his parents he'd died. His father, who was a POW in World War II, didn't trust them. After her mother's death, Jessica picks up the dormant investigation and searches for her uncle, uncovering personal and political secrets along the way." —BuzzFeed

"Everything about What We Inherit is unexpected and compelling… as breathtaking as any spy movie." —The Los Angeles Review of Books

"Rotondi deftly moves between the personal and the historical, and the book is a sensitive and searching examination of the ways loss and trauma live on through generations." —The Boston Globe

“This love story—and yes, it is a love story—is part memoir, part history lesson, and all heart. A journey from darkness into light via love.” —Jennifer Pastiloff, author of On Being Human

"Jessica Pearce Rotondi brilliantly probes the mysteries of a secret war while simultaneously exploring the secrets of her own family, to give us a book about coming to terms with many kinds of loss. Exceptional." —Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-winning author of Midnight's Children

"Written like a spy novel and delivered like a whistleblower account of government deception, I felt like I was holding my breath until the very last page... This book shook my deepest assumptions about America." —Sebastian Junger, award-winning author of The Perfect Storm

"In delicately nuanced prose and with fine novelistic detail, Jessica Pearce Rotondi relates an utterly absorbing tale of how, spurred by her mother's death, she attempted to track down the elusive truth about her uncle Jack, missing in action in Laos for decades. Her work, a beautiful amalgam of memoir, travelogue and investigative report, moves with the propulsive forward energy of a thriller. It is a haunting chronicle of loss and redemption and an irresistibly good read...You won't be able to put it down." —Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Alexander Hamilton

What We Inherit is a strikingly original debut, a moving saga of love and grief that shows how world events reshaped three generations of one American family. Jessica Pearce Rotondi discovers that courage exists not only on battlefields, but even in the most ordinary kitchens.”  —Kate Bolick, bestselling author of Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own



"This fascinating memoir is at once about a moment in American history and the particular logics of grief. Jessica Pearce Rotondi begins, on the page and in striking prose, to unfurl the grief she feels at her mother’s death. Reading this book, I learned about the after-effects of war, and about the power of grace. I learned about hope, and its transformation into peace. What We Inherit is a powerful book about how we make sense of unfathomable loss - and about the realization that all loss is unfathomable. In our current world, with so much war and pain, this is the book we need."  —Eva Hagberg, author of How to Be Loved: A Memoir of Life-Saving Friendship

“Recounting her family’s heart-wrenching search for an uncle who was shot down during the secret bombing of Laos, Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s What We Inherit is a triumph of investigative family history. A skillful and lyrical retelling of a mystery discovered largely upon her mother's death, this book is a reminder of how the suffering that remains after war, a secret war all the more so, can haunt us for generations.” —Joel Whitney, author of Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers and a founder of Guernica

"I devoured this book in one breathless gulp. A seamless blend of love, loss and legacy, this utterly gripping account of one woman's search to uncover a family mystery in the wake of her mother's death is at once heartbreaking and gorgeously hopeful. This is exactly the kind of compulsively readable memoir I'm always hoping to find, but so rarely do." —Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

Rotondi does well narrating her account of how the death of a family member in Vietnam affected three generations of her family. In March 1972, Rotondi’s Uncle Jack went missing during a bombing run in Laos. Rotondi’s account of how her family searched for any information about what happened to him is a testament to determination. This reviewer had a family member who died in the service of this country and knows that the death notification changes things forever. Over the years, the Pearce family gleaned information from a multitude of sources, the majority of whom were indifferent to the family’s quest. Rotondi is not a polished narrator. But she does read clearly, and her intensity and heartfelt love of family come through in her telling of her family’s story. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2019-12-22
A debut memoir about a family who searched for their loved one for decades.

Until her mother's death, Brooklyn-based writer and editor Rotondi knew very little about Uncle Jack, who disappeared in Laos in 1972 and "stayed missing" for 36 years. The author discovered boxes of letters and declassified documents that showed decades of research into his whereabouts, much of it conducted by her grandparents, Ed and Rosemary. Ed, who had been a POW during World War II, was not convinced when the American government told him his son had died in a plane crash over Laos, so he spent the rest of his life digging for the truth. Eventually, Rotondi's mother took up the search, followed by the author. As part of their search, Ed and Rosemary requested packets of information under the Freedom of Information Act, attended hearings, protested the lack of government concern about the POWs and MIAs in Southeast Asia, and clung to the belief that their son was still alive. Ed even visited Laos but was unable to access the crash site. Years later, Rotondi and a friend followed his footsteps, gathering shreds of information from the locals, many of whom were nervous about talking openly with Americans. The author's precise attention to detail conjures up the jungle heat and humidity as well as the pervasive poverty that plagues Laos, and she effectively captures her family's daily struggle and the toll their quest took on their personal health. The narrative is moving and dramatic as the author shares the alternately heartbreaking and triumphant moments of this intergenerational search for the truth. At intervals in the well-written text, Rotondi also shares details about the CIA's "Secret War" in Laos, where, "between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped two million tons of cluster bombs…a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years."

An inspiring and revealing story of one family's pursuit of the truth about their son.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940177305356
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Publication date: 04/21/2020
Edition description: Unabridged
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